Half Discovered Wings (34 page)

Every now and
again, Turenn’s eyes flickered across to Rowan. Rowan was looking
back.

~

In the late
hours of the following morning, arguing could be heard from the
main door. Gabel stood, intending to move closer and listen, but as
he did so the door opened and in walked Saykaan, closely followed
by Turenn. He turned and bowed to the magus, and told him that it
was time he and his party saw the Mayor.

‘
I’ve been sent to escort you,’ he said. They left with him as
their guide. As Gabel closed the door behind him, he saw Saykaan
cast a dark parting look at his brother.

‘
What should I say?’ Rowan asked him quietly.

‘
You won’t need to say anything,’ Saykaan told her. ‘But if
you’re spoken to, it would be appropriate to respond.’

Saykaan had taken point, flanked by two men Gabel recognised
from the day before. Saykaan wore tall boots and bangles around his
wrists and upper arms, which were bare. His muscles bulged with the
life-long routine of manual labour about the town. He explained how
he had declined his mother’s offer of secondary-Mayorship, which
would lead to him later becoming Mayor himself, and instead had
taken up governance of the groups devoted to repairing damage and
defending Iilyani against the attacks of the Luxers.

The town was
in ruins. Only half of the buildings remained, and though all the
fires had now been quenched by water from the river, people were
still having to shift the blackened beams and scorched bricks from
the remnants of the decimated homes. They came across ruins
littered with what at first looked like burnt bodies. Upon closer
inspection they turned out to be charcoaled mannequins, left to
smoke in the rubble.

‘
The town hall is just here,’ Saykaan said, as they pushed
through a street crowded by men clearing the town’s remains. ‘My
mother took over as Mayer when my father died, as Turenn and I were
only youngsters. She’s had a lot of time to learn how to maintain
respect here. Please be wary when you speak with her.’

Small
monkey-like creatures scampered between the legs of the workers, or
crouched on the few ruinous walls that still stood. Their bald
faces watched the workers and the visitors, tiny luminescent green
eyes blinking from shadows cast by the buildings. A large specimen
meandered aimlessly across their path, and Saykaan and his two men
walked by it without notice. It looked up at the visitors as they
walked around. They watched as it picked dirt from its fluffy
bulbous tail and scratched its ears with a dexterous paw.

As Caeles
passed, the creature scampered up his leg and dug its little
fingers around his belt, hanging by its toes and looking up at the
man. Caeles grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, held it close to
his face as it allowed itself to be carefully examined – blankly
gazing around at its surroundings – and set it down on a low wall.
It twitched its ears and vanished into the rubble.

‘
Curious creatures,’ Sarai said.

‘
They’re called shili,’ one of Saykaan’s men said. ‘Entirely
friendly. They eat the mineral leaves that grow in the forests
around here. It’s why their eyes glow.’

‘
Dirty tree rats,’ Caeles said, scattering a small crowd of
them.

The town hall
was a large building with peculiar architecture, made of heavy
beams of wood. The windows were pointed at the bottom, like curious
arrows of bleached stained glass. The roof had a clever drainage
system to carry away water via ornately carved aqueducts, and they
spidered out from niches along the top of the building, directing
sparkling fountains all around the outside.

On either side of the angular archway stood two massive
angels, wings folded over themselves like feathery shrouds. These
too were carved of wood, but were as delicately fashioned as the
ugly gargoyles that protected the building from around its
guttering. Each of the angels beckoned inward.

‘
Come inside,’ Saykaan said. ‘Ramek, Tumat: guard the building
please.’

The two men, dressed in similar clothes to Saykaan except for
the significantly larger knives hanging from their belts, stood in
front of the angels, bowed, and then turned, facing
outward.

‘
This way,’ Saykaan said, and pushed open the heavy doors. ‘Our
Mayor is strong and astute, a grand leader. She is in full health;
our people wouldn’t tolerate her any other way. However, since the
death of my father, she has had to assume a great deal more
responsibility. The pressure is on her to protect Iilyani, but I
would never apologise in advance for anything she might
say.’

The group of
passengers followed him into a long passage, through the first of
its two doors. It led to a large room that must have taken up the
majority of the building.

‘
Lady Mayor, I have the visitors,’ he said, before leaving and
closing the door quietly in his stead.

She sat in a
seat of dark wood, ornately carved with tiny figures. A bo-staff
was threaded through a set of rings in its side, tall as a man and
tied at the top with a black ribbon. The Mayor’s bald head rose.
They saw that she was not much older than Gabel, with dark mahogany
eyes that seemed black with the sunlight behind her.

‘
You may introduce yourselves,’ she said quietly, echoing the
words of her son.

The old man was the first to step forward. ‘I am a magus,’ he
said. ‘This is my employee, Joseph Gabel. We travel
en route
to the city of
Shianti in the rainforests past the Plains.’

The Mayor nodded, signalling that he should
continue.

‘
This is Rowan Dayle, a member of Joseph’s township,’ the magus
went on. ‘This is Caeles, who helps us on our journey, and this is
Sarai Catling, who has joined us in search of her captured
offspring.’

‘
Quite a bunch,’ the Mayor said, standing and rubbing her hands
over her arms, which were naked but for brass bangles similar to
Saykaan’s, and the heavy brass gauntlet on her right hand, which
creaked whenever she made a fist. ‘With stories worth permission to
stay another night here, I’d wager. You said you are a magus. What
is your name?’

‘
I don’t carry a name.’

‘
And why not?’

‘
I don’t use it much,’ he replied. ‘I keep forgetting what it
is.’

The Mayor laughed. ‘You didn’t look like the type to be
branded with such a label. Something so trivial as a name must seem
unimportant to you. My name is Firrok.’

Her
face suddenly dropped into a severe grimace, and she rushed
forward. The sharp thumb of her metal-sheathed hand sliced a line
in the magus’ forehead. He did not move, letting a trickle of blood
run down past his eye as he watched her.

‘
Good,’ she said. ‘Very good.’ She tugged a strip of fabric
from one of her arm bracelets, and stroked it gently over the cut.
‘You are a warrior.’

‘
As are you,’ Gabel said, already having taken a step in her
direction. ‘We hear that you’ve sworn to stay and fight against the
Luxers.’

‘
Yes,’ she said. ‘They’ll not win next time. I’d sooner
perish.’

‘
I approve of your intentions in that regard, and of your son
Saykaan’s ambitions to restore the burnt dwellings to what they
were. I’d gladly help while we stay here, with your
permission.’

‘
You’re astute,’ said the Mayor, smiling tiredly. ‘Already
you’ve figured that everything in this town is only done with my
blessing, even the voluntary work of guests. You may work with my
son if you wish, but you don’t have to. To see a friendly face here
is enough. You say you journey to Shianti. Why?’

‘
Rowan, who travels with us, is sick.’

‘
Yes, but she doesn’t seem it,’ she said.

There was a
brief pause, and Rowan looked to both Gabel and the magus before
realising she was being asked to speak.

‘
I am still somewhat weak from an attack, Lady Mayor,’ she
said.

‘
An attack? Who attacked you?’

‘
We do not know, Lady Mayor.’

‘
I leased you permission to use my name, Rowan.’

‘
Yes, Lady Firrok,’ she said quietly, looking at the
floor.

Sensing Rowan
was uneasy, the Mayor turned to the old man and asked, ‘When were
you attacked?’

‘
Over the great lake Lual, a few weeks ago,’ he
replied.

‘
Then she became ill
during
the journey?’

‘
She also suffers from another unexplainable illness, my
Lady.’

Here she
stepped closer to the magus, and brought her naked bare thumb
across his shallow wound, cleansing it. Then she rubbed her fingers
together, and sucked the blood from them.

‘
You are powerful,’ she whispered. ‘Please, help
me.’

‘
I am sorry,’ the old man replied, almost sadly. He seemed to
recognise something in her, and his expression changed to one of
sorrow. ‘I have other things that I must do.’

Rowan couldn’t even guess what was going on, but the magus
appeared to understand exactly what Firrok had meant. Sarai only
looked at the floor uneasily, but Gabel seemed to have an inkling.
He had the same expression he wore when thinking of Bethany since
her death at the hands of the theriope. Was Lady Firrok suggesting
that the magus could be some kind of companion?

Firrok took a
deep breath and turned. ‘Let’s move on to your relationship with
this man here, in the hat, who so bravely interrupted me not too
long ago. Do you teach him magic?’

‘
No, he’s not an apprentice, but an employee. He’s in my
service. He is a factotum.’

The Mayor’s
brass gauntlet creaked as she flexed her hand. ‘Here,’ she said
lowly, almost inaudibly. ‘In my town?’

‘
My work is honourable,’ said Gabel, scowling.

‘
You have a demeaning and unpleasant occupation. If you wish to
stay alive in Iilyani you will tell my people you are his
apprentice, if they ask. That is my order to you, as your
host.’

‘
Yes, Lady Firrok.’

‘
You, with the eyes,’ she said, looking now at Sarai. ‘You have
lost a child?’

‘
My son’s being held by an enemy.’

‘
A common enemy?’

‘
Perhaps so.’

‘
I would have happily send men with you to help, but they are
both tired and short in number. And you say you intend to cross the
Sinh-ha Plains, which is another problem for you. We have found
that the
Caballeros de la Muerte
have made an alliance with the Luxers. I believe
it’s an attempt to wipe us out, as one of the closest permanent
settlements east of Shianti.’

‘
How often is the town attacked?’ Caeles asked, speaking for
the first time. No-one missed the fact that he hadn’t waited to be
addressed, nor that he had omitted the Lady Mayor’s title. But
Firrok seemed to see something impressive in Caeles, and only
looked him up and down once before replying.

‘
Almost weekly now. But we
will
fight.’

‘
If not for my lost son, I would gladly stay and fight with
you,’ Sarai said, and bowed.

‘
I thank you. And now,’ said the Mayor, with clear effort, ‘I
hear from Saykaan that you lodge with my other son,
Turenn.’

‘
That’s right,’ said the magus. ‘He offered us a place to stay
when no other was available.’

‘
Watch your girl in that place,’ warned the Mayor. ‘Turenn is
ambitious to say the least. Perhaps voracious is a better word – as
a man, and as a potential heir to this Mayorship. Has he mentioned
this to you?’

‘
He has been absent almost all of our stay with him, Lady
Firrok,’ the magus replied.

She nodded, and sighed. ‘I’m having great difficulty in
keeping my town together. I wish with all my heart that Saykaan
would agree to be my successor, but he insists on rebuilding
Iilyani rather than ruling it. It is honourable, I think, but it
only leaves me with Turenn as my heir. That is …
worrisome.’

~

‘
Were
you listening?’ Gabel asked Rowan, once they were outside. He
walked closely beside her, and spoke in a whisper. ‘Turenn is no
good.’

‘
I have my own judgements where people are concerned,’ Rowan
replied, and sped up. She felt brittle after her audience with Lady
Firrok. It had felt to her more like an interrogation, despite the
Mayor’s occasional smile, and it had left Rowan
exhausted.

Gabel caught
her wrist.

‘
Don’t let him deceive you,’ he said. ‘He uses
women.’

‘
I have eyes
and
a mind.’

‘
Then use them. Leave Turenn be.’

‘
Don’t order me around, Joseph,’ she said. ‘
You
are the factotum, not
me.’

~

For three additional nights they stayed at Turenn’s
brothel, and every morning Gabel would go back to The Water Wader
and ask if there was
a room. None had freed up. Every night they were
forced to sleep under the roof of the Mayor’s disreputable
son.

The fourth
morning came to Rowan with more heat than she had ever experienced.
She had felt weak upon their arrival in Iilyani, but now she was
stifled by the intense stuffiness coming over from the Plains. The
ground around the clearing was white with heat. She shielded her
eyes and gazed out from the edge of town, feeling the warmth sink
into her skin.